NEW HAVEN, Conn. - The Saint Michael's College women's soccer team yielded only a 69th-minute strike to regionally-ranked Southern Connecticut State University on Wednesday but fell by a 1-0 count on Jess Dow Field during Northeast-10 Conference action. The Purple Knights are now 3-13 overall and 2-11 in the league, while the Owls improved to 8-6-3 and 7-4-2. Southern Connecticut State, which was ninth in this week's National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) East Region poll, has played 12 consecutive games decided by one goal or less.

Sophomore Megan LeCours (Barre, Vt./Spaulding) recorded eight saves for Saint Michael's, which took the game's lone corner kick. Junior Victoria Conde scored the only goal of the game for the Owls, and senior Erica Ridella made two stops.

Senior Alana Houlihan (North Andover, Mass./North Andover) crossed the only corner kick of the game during the 22nd minute, but no teammate connected on the other end, while LeCours turned away a bid by senior Caroline Staudle in the 25th minute for the only shot on goal in the opening 38-plus minutes. The keeper recorded another pair of stops in the 39th and 41st minutes before Purple Knight first-year Greta Ricigliano (Milwaukee, Wis./Nicolet) fired a bid over the crossbar with 31 seconds remaining in the first half. The teams were scoreless at the intermission.

Houlihan registered the initial opportunity in the second stanza, firing a shot on net that Ridella stopped, and LeCours had saves in the 55th and 61st minutes, including denying Staudle's header on the second bid. In the 69th minute, senior Kieran DeBiase rolled a cross from the right end line between two Purple Knight defenders, finding an unmarked Conde in the right side of the box. Conde fired a left-footed strike off of the upper left post and in at 68:46. LeCours rattled off saves in the 71st and 73rd minutes to keep it 1-0, and the lone tying attempt by a Saint Michael's player came as Houlihan's 82nd-minute bid was denied by Ridella.

The Purple Knights conclude their season on Saturday by hosting Franklin Pierce University at 12 p.m. for Senior Day.